Social Media Crisis Management

The Flashlight Search Marketing Team at Rocktime Digital Agency work with a number of our clients advising them how to respond in social media. Working with the client we talk about the types of negative customers who can contact your company via social media such as: the unhappy customer, the misguided twitter follower, the all time negative poster.

We help our clients understand how to access, evaluate and respond to negative comments and on some rare occasions how to report the negative commentators. During social media crisis management the objective will be to rectify the situation and act upon a reasonable solution as soon as possible.

We will also ask our clients to consider sharing negative stories with others to show that they are eager to improve service. Being honest, open and authentic in social media is crucial for effective communications. Should you wish to find out more about social media management please call in and talk to Rocktime Sales about the search marketing team's experience and how they can assist your organisation in monitoring your customers social media communications. The Flashlight Search Marketing team would be happy to work with your organisation, creating a flowchart to advise how to “assess, evaluate and respond” to circumstances as they present themselves.


Author: Sarah Griffiths

The winning Geek Video of 2011 is...

Our regular readers will know that each month we share with you our 'Geek Video' of the month. Each month videos are submitted to me, by the technical team, or clients and a monthly winner is chosen.

Without further ado, drum roll please!
Our top Geek Video for 2011 is...

The EXODesk! Featured in our December Geek Video of the Month. Sadly Santa didn’t bring me one for Christmas this year, but maybe next time.

Our highlights and runners up include this demonstration of some cool science with Quantum Levitation from November, and this fantastic infographic by Digital Life, on the future of digital from June.

Why not check out some of our previous Geek Videos and pick out some favourites yourself.

If you come across anything interesting, or find a Geek Video you think is worth featuring, why not let us know.


Author: Alice Cheetham

Tech Trends of 2012

Happy New Year readers, hope you all had a lovely Christmas break.

We thought to share with you some of the best posts we have spotted on the WWW about tech trends people expect to emerge in 2012, enjoy:

Five tech trends to watch in 2012 from Mashable

Five key marketing trends for 2012: Are you being served, from Econsultancy

Ten tech trends that will be big in 2012 from Pocket-lint

Tech trends for 2012 Video from Reuters TV

We will also be joining in conversations with the IEEE (the world’s largest technical professional association) Facebook page next week as they will be posting news from the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) and providing updates in the form of video interviews with IEEE experts about the top consumer electronics trends in 2012.

Our Technical Manager, Andy, also pointed out a few personal top items to keep an eye on;

• The increasing use of NFC as it becomes available in more mobile devices. This has many uses including sharing web addresses from posters or paying for items with a “wave” of your mobile.
• Glasses-free 3D TV which will be shown as CES.
• More mobile focused sites using frameworks such as JQuery Mobile, Kendo UI Mobile and responsive design.
• 4G mobile network

If you have spotted any further posts on technical trends that you would like to share with us, feel free to leave a comment below.

In summary: 2012 seeks to be a rather exciting year with more emphasis on sophistication on the tools we currently use. The Rocktime team are most excited about mobile-social opportunities for our clients, as well as increasing collaborations with niche communities and gaining access to a whole lot of channel data.

Integrated Digital Marketing campaigns with a targeted focus is a must to achieve true ROI. As a team, along with sharing updates on our activities, we are looking forward to sharing further insights with you on further technical trends, devise use, channel strategies and ROI this year, watch this space.


Author: Sarah Griffiths

10 things Fiona likes most about Google+

Since Google+ launched for brands and businesses in November 2011 I have enjoyed thinking about ways we could incorporate Google+ into integrated digital marketing strategies and build a brand presence for our clients. Here are a few things, listed in no particular order, that I like about Google+:

1. Hangouts are great for product demos and launches, group chats, document screen sharing and music promotion.


2. Google is socialising all its services including search which is why Google+ content shows up in the search results, so great for increasing your search engine presence (Search Engine Optimisation).


3. Linking all the Google products like YouTube and Blogger in one Google Account. The new Gmail interface integrates with and even looks similar to Google+.


4. Optimised Google Places and My Places location maps, with a special offer and the new map snippets for sharing directions. Images can be geo tagged and found on Google Earth.


5. Customisable widgets, RSS feed, social share badges making real time updating relevant.


6. Allows animated gifs as well as static images in profile, which integrate with Picasa photo management service.


7. The chance to be an influencer and to find influencers in a certain field using the Ripples interactive diagram.


8. Great search ability of Google+ accounts, Google Direct Connect, lots of lists of profiles, categories and content related searches to find people of interest.


9. Linking Ads with +1 recommendations and being able to +1 images that I like.


10. Google+ bringing in location deals and mobile check-ins, which are great for in store promotions linked to Google Maps.

I don’t play games, as I am usually at a live music event but if I did, Google+ has those too.

If you want to find out more about Google+ and how it can benefit your business, please do go back and visit by November Blog, Creating a Google+ Page for your business. Alternatively give our sales team a call, they will be happy to discuss how we can help you further with digital strategy planning.


Author: Fiona Anderson

Geek Video of the Month

Dear Santa,

For Christmas, I would like an EXOdesk to replace my office desk at work, thanks.

Unfortunately though, it might have to wait until next year, as the video above is currently only a prototype. Built by the Canadian software company, EXOPC, their interactive desk is a tabletop computer, allowing you to manipulate objects by touch and dragging across the surface. If you’re interested in checking out more innovations about the ExoDesk, take a look over at their official development blog, EXOPC Lab.

The release date is set rather vaguely for 2012, with a rather heady price tag of $1,299. Whilst that might seem like a lot, it’s under ¼ of the price of Microsoft’s equivalent of the interactive desk, so if you’re dead set on your desk of the future, it might be something to keep an eye on!


Author: Alice Cheetham

EBay's new approach to Christmas shopping

To celebrate the Christmas season, eBay is opening their first ever UK store, though it’s not quite shopping as we know it...

Their temporary boutique opened yesterday, as scheduled, in London’s West End for just 5 days, allowing shoppers to browse their potential purchases before splashing out online. This is by no means eBay’s first foray into expanding from their online auctions; why not check out our previous article on their augmented reality app from earlier this year.

The shopping emporium works by making use of QR, or Quick Response codes. If you’re interested in learning more about QR codes and how they work, check out our previous post here. Customers can wander around the store and browse to their hearts content, purchases can then be made using a smartphone (or any other connected device that can read QR codes).

"Shoppers simply scan the QR code with their smartphone to make their loved ones’ Christmas wishes come true – no tills, no queues, no bags, no stress. Using your mobile phone, you can literally complete your shopping in a matter of clicks," claims eBay’s spokesperson.

Experts expect approximately 5.8 million shoppers to log on during the five day sales, with sales peaking at 30 gifts per second, almost double during the same period of 2010. EBay say they are expecting around 120 gifts to be purchased every minute via smartphone.

If you’re interested in learning more about how your business can take advantage of smartphone technology, or want to know how you can promote yourself over the festive period, why not get in contact with Rocktime and talk to our Sales team about the opportunities avaliable


Author: Alice Cheetham

Creating a Google+ Page for your business

Earlier this week we talked about what benefits a Google+ page can bring to brands and businesses today we’re talking about the basics of setting up your own Google Plus business page.

Creating your own Google+ page is quite straight forward but would benefit from a bit of strategy about how your business wants to use the network. To start, simply log into your Google account or create a new account if you haven’t already got one for your business. Please remember to ONLY HAVE ONE Google Account for ALL your Google Products. Next, navigate to your +You profile page. On the right hand side there will be a box with the topic “Create Google+ Pages” click the “Create Google+ Page” which will take you straight to the sign up page.

Whilst configuring your business Google+ page, you can set it to be invisible to others, so they can’t see your edits.


When making your Google+ page, it is important that you select an appropriate category and fill in as many details as possible; add links, images, choose an appropriate title and when you’re happy with the appearance and functionality of your page, go ahead and make it public. To access and manage this new page you will toggle between the profile and the page.

Remember the Flashlight Search Marketing team can set this up for you, if you haven’t got the in house resource to complete and optimise your Google+ page.

If you’re hunting for ideas for your business Google+ page, why not take a look at some of these already established brands, such as H&M, Pepsi or X Games.

Once you’ve put together your page, please find a selection of opportunities to develop your Google+ page and some pointers to be aware of as aof25th November 2011. Google+ will be evolving and refining the network with new features and tools over the coming months.
Opportunities to develop your Google+ page

Flashlight can offer lots of useful page optimisation tips on how to use configuration tools for developers and linking your Google+ page and your website in webmaster tools.

We recommend:

• Connecting your accounts from other services
• Creating video for your news feed because videos are weighted more heavily that other types of content
• Learning how to build campaigns on Google+ differently to the Facebook and twitter channels
• Making use of the feature introduced on 2 November 2011 that allows you to +1 a photo
• Adding a reciprocal social share badge link back from your Google+ page to the main page of your website.
• Selecting tabs to display to your visitors
• Reviewing how your profile appears to different people
• Checking out how linked sites are eligible for Google Direct Connect
• Utilising the feature of +1’s being shown with your brand page and search ads
• Considering a future best practice strategy for linking the Google+ page to an Adwords campaign

Limitations and things to remember

1. Ability to link page to Adwords Campaign not yet implemented.
2. Google+ will not allow brands to run promotions or competitions directly on the social network - although you are allowed to display a link leading to a separate site where a promotion is being hosted.
3. Need a maximum 10 participants to hold a hangout.
4. There's a 90 minute check-in to make sure you're still there.
5. Can’t rename photo albums once created.
6. Does not have the ability to create multiple administrators to a page.
7. Unlike some other Google webservices, Google Analytics is not currently integrated completely with G+, however referrals will appear from plus.google.com.
   
8. Does not have the ability to customise the URL / no vanity URL yet.
9. You aren't able to see a complete list of the people included in your extended circles; it's a collection of people that's frequently changing.
10. If a given page isn't in the circles selected to be displayed on your profile, that page won't be able to display your profile as among those who are following it.
11. A page admin cannot add people to the page’s Circles unless that person has already added the brand to their Circle
12. Use a clean URL when you add your content to Google+. Google+ hasn't been translating URL shorteners well, so our tip is use a link from the source.
13. Instant Upload is only available for Android devices (2.1+) with the Google+ app installed.
14. Google is not including the +1 button on mobile search results at this time. However, users may be able to see any +1 buttons they have added to web pages.

We have already set up a number of optimised Google+ brand pages for our clients, if you would like the Flashlight Search Marketing Team to developme a strategy or set up a Google Plus page for you, or if you’re interested in learning more about how your business can establish/improve their online presence, please call the Rocktime Sales team on 01202 678777, or use our contact us form to set up a meeting to discuss how we can assist.


Author: Fiona Anderson & Alice Cheetham